Film of the Day – Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)
When we last checked in on Seijun Suzuki, he had just landed himself in some serious trouble with his employers at the Nikkatsu Company film studio. Having already warned the director that his films were getting far too weird, Suzuki offered them Tokyo Drifter, a kaliedoscopic, madcap riot, but also the [...]
Monday Morricone Madness!!!
Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968) Hands up who likes Austin Powers? Well, I know I do! Not the wretched sequels of course, but the first film in the series, which was an incredibly smart and rather heartfelt parody of a period of filmmaking stretching from the mid to late 60s. With the Cold War approaching its 20th [...]
Single of the Day – John Carpenter – Moochie’s Death
We all know John Carpenter is a talented little so and so (says so here) when it comes to recording his own music and that. So, I don’t really need to go into detail about Mr. Carpenter’s genius but today’s single is taken from his underrated score to his film adaptation of the Stephen [...]
Single of the Day – Cluster – Hollywood
One of the pioneering Kraut-Rock band of the seventies along with Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, Cluster duo Hans Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius collaborated with musical greats such as Brian Eno, Conrad Plank and Michael Rother from Neu! Taken from 1974′s ‘Zuckerzeit’, ‘Hollywood’ is a mysterious and growing rock [...]
Film of the Day – The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985)
The first thing wot I ever wrote for this here website was a little number about dystopian science fiction films. You know the kind I mean; films in which the future is depicted in ultra-pessimistic fashiom, with society having collapsed in on itself in a varying variety of savage post-apocalyptic worlds. Well, an interesting subgenre growing out [...]
Film of the Day – Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966)
Seijun Suzuki is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon… Or rather, he is drinking in whatever the Japanese equivalent of the Last Chance Saloon is. The year is 1966, and Suzuki is the undisputed king of the B-movie in Japan. He is a contract director at the Nikkatsu Company’s studio in [...]
“Film star…”
“…propping up the bar, driving in a car, it looks so easy” Suede frontman Brett Anderson once warbled, and it’s not hard to see why he arrived at that conclusion. It would seem that, for the majority of the rock and pop elite, rocketing all the way up the charts (and [...]
Single of the Day – Mercury Dance Band – Envy No Good
Today’s SOTD is simply a brilliant afro/cuban rock number from the 2001 Kona Records compilation ‘Afro-Rock Vol.1′. I don’t know much about the song or the band, so I will quote from the excellent linear notes by Duncan Brooker, which will reveal a bit more about the Mercury Dance Band… [...]
Damned Damned Damned (United United United)
It’s the film that everyone’s talking about! And last night I too went to see The Damned United… And damned fine I thought it was an’ all! I never warmed to the original novel (I tried reading it but I couldn’t stick David Peace’s grating prose poetry “Shitty Leeds, gritty Leeds, packet o’ seeds” [...]
Single of the Day – MFSB – Love is the Message
MFSB or ‘Mother, Father, Sister, Brother’ (not the REAL meaning, the real meaning is waaaay ruder and this is a family website) were employed as the house band of legendary producers Gamble & Huff. After working on some minor hits and recording under pseudonyms, the group forged their succes [...]